Luigi (SSB)

Luigi in Super Smash Bros.
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	C (12) (North America) ? (11) (Japan)

Luigi (ルイージ, Luigi) appears in Super Smash Bros. as one of the four unlockable characters. He is a clone of Mario, keeping most of his moves and animations, though differing in terms of attributes. High-pitched versions of Mario's Super Mario 64 voice clips, originally performed by Charles Martinet, serve as Luigi's voice.

Luigi ranks 12th on the tier list, putting him at the bottom of the list and making for his worst placement in the series. Luigi's combo ability is varied and versatile, with fast attacks that can often be followed up on by his Super Jump Punch, which not only serves as a devastating combo finisher, but also a solid recovery. At a glance, Luigi shares several of Mario's notable points, while also being able to take early stocks with a much stronger up special.

However, his weaknesses are overwhelming: While his jump height is impressive, he has very poor mobility overall. With the lowest traction, dashing, and air speeds, along with the third lowest falling speed and gravity; and like Mario, his reach is relatively short. Altogether, these attributes result in a very weak neutral game, despite having a projectile. While being a clone in terms of attacks, some of his attacks are much weaker than Mario's, with the exception of Super Jump Punch, which is hard to land without confirming a combo into it. Lastly, his recovery is predictable despite being long distanced, and he is easier to gimp than Mario because of his lower air speed.

As a result of these attributes, Luigi relinquishes in Mario's shadow at the bottom of the tier list. Though Luigi is much more viable than some of Smash's other bottom tiers, and even ranks slightly higher in other countries, he has few dedicated players in competitive play besides  Freean, and unimpressive tournament results.

How to unlock

Complete Break the Targets with all eight of the starter characters, then defeat Luigi on Peach's Castle. Players that lose the fight against Luigi can re-fight him by completing Break the Targets again with any character.

Attributes

Luigi's congratulations screen.

Luigi is notable for being the only full clone in Smash 64. Many of his attacks, pros, and cons are similar to Mario's, although there are differences. Luigi's main problem is his terrible physics - a combination of slow dashing speed, very slow air speed, low traction, and low falling speed gives him very poor mobility and big trouble approaching, even with a projectile in his Fireballs. He also has a high short hop and short range.

Luigi has a very good recovery - despite being on the more predictable side, his jump is high and Super Jump Punch travels a long vertical distance, with Luigi Cyclone being an additional recovery option (though it requires rather fast button mashing to give distance). However, Luigi Cyclone can be used at different times to mix up his recovery.

Luigi's Fire Jump Punch is a very powerful KO move, and it can be comboed into with any of his aerials sans neutral aerial. Despite this, however, Luigi generally cannot combo well due to his very low air speed. His down aerial is his main combo move, and is excellent at that job, dealing very high damage (24% total), and being able to lead into an up aerial to continue the string (Luigi can do this combo to higher percents than Mario due to his higher jump), but being a multi-hit attack, it can be SDI'd out of, hindering its effectiveness. Luigi's short hopped up aerial to down aerial combos are typically considered the best way to rack damage at base to low percents. Though, having higher knockback, Luigi's up tilt is a slightly better combo move at base percentages than Mario's. His up tilt can chain into itself easily at low to moderate percents, can combo into aerials, and is an effective move to use for juggling along with his up aerial. Luigi has the highest initial jump in the game, which can be a good thing on stages like Hyrule Castle, but it gives him a high short hop, which further hinders some of his combo ability, especially since it's also rather slow.

While slightly weaker than Mario overall, Luigi still has many strong KO moves to his name by virtue of most of Mario's strong ones being untouched for Luigi's versions. Even outside the Fire Jump Punch, Luigi can still KO effectively with his up smash, Luigi Cyclone, and back throw (the former of which is the strongest alongside Mario's and Jigglypuff's, being able to KO at as low as 73% on Dream Land, and the latter being able to KO and edgeguard effectively) His down smash is also a powerful move, with its two hits being spread out over a somewhat long duration, allowing it to easily read defensive options such as rolls, and also being able to hit characters on the edge. His forward throw and forward smash are both usable for KOs near the ledge (with the former in fact being stronger than Mario's, but the latter is weaker).

To his credit, Luigi is a good edgeguarder, courtesy of Mario's edgeguarding tools being mostly untouched for Luigi's versions. His forward aerial can semi-spike, and it has multiple hits. Luigi's back aerial has more range, but is slower than Mario's, but is still a solid KO move, and it along with forward aerial can be used to space. As mentioned earlier, his down aerial can drag opponents down if used repeatedly, due to being a high damage, set knockback meteor smash. However, some fighters (Pikachu, Kirby, Mario and other Luigis) are able to escape. His neutral aerial, while inferior to back aerial in terms of power and range, may be used to edgeguard whenever Luigi is in the situational position to use it after a combo, like Mario's. The Luigi Cyclone can pseudo-spike most characters as an edgeguarding technique, but this is ineffective against characters who can recover from it quickly, including Pikachu, Mario, and other Luigis.

In doubles

Overall, Luigi is considered a decent mid-tier in doubles. With a teammate to distract opponents, Luigi gains several opportunities for devastating Fire Jump Punch combos, and his poor approach can be covered by a fast teammate like Fox. Luigi's primary weaknesses are his poor range and poor air speed, which is why he is usually partnered with a character who can cover those disadvantages (like Captain Falcon or Pikachu). He is considered a great combo with Mario due to their combo and KOing options being nearly identical, allowing them to combo extensively.

Differences from Mario

Luigi has slower mobility, less combo ability, a worse approach game, and marginally lowered power compared to Mario. However, he has more range, slightly faster frame data, a better jump, and an additional combo finisher in his Super Jump Punch. He also has a different down tilt and dash attack and differently functioning specials than Mario, as well as a taunt with a hitbox.

Aesthetics

• Luigi's taunt is different, being a bashful kick to the ground. It is significantly faster and can actually hurt opponents, dealing high fixed knockback and 1% damage if it connects.
• All of Luigi's victory poses are different.
• Luigi's fighting stance is unique.

Attributes

• Luigi dashes slower than Mario (44 → 40).
• Luigi has much slower air speed than Mario (30 → 26 (JPN) / 22.5 (NA / PAL)), hindering his recovery and aerial maneuverability.
• Luigi has lower gravity than Mario (2.4 → 2.1).
• Luigi falls slightly slower than Mario (44 → 42), hindering his vertical endurance, but improving his recovery.
  • Subsequently, Luigi's fast-falling speed is also slightly slower than Mario's (70 → 67.5).
• Luigi has significantly lower traction than Mario (1.5 → 0.7). This makes it considerably more difficult to pressure Luigi’s shield (albeit at the cost of his Out of Shield punish hame) and it makes Luigi’s pivots travel further.
• Luigi jumps much higher than Mario (1360.133333 → 1718.214881), improving his recovery and allowing him to output more aerials after jumping. However, this impairs his grounded combo ability and his ability to pressure grounded opponents with aerials due to giving him a much higher short hop.

Ground attacks

• The third hit of Luigi's neutral attack has a longer duration (frames 3-7 → 3-8).
• Luigi has a different dash attack; a flurry of weak punches.
• Luigi’s dash attack has less startup lag (frame 8 → 3).
• Luigi's dash attack accelerates slower.
• Luigi's dash attack has more ending lag (FAF 41 → 61).
• Each hit of dash attack deals low set knockback, making it much less effective and reliable.
  • Altogether, these changes make Luigi's dash attack significantly less effective than Mario's.
• Luigi's forward tilt has a shorter duration (frames 8-17 → 8-12).
• Luigi's forward tilt deals less damage (14%/13%/12% → 10%), hindering its KO potential.
• Luigi's forward tilt's foot hitbox is smaller (115u → 110u) and it is positioned closer to Luigi (x offset: 90 → 80), reducing its range.
• Luigi's up tilt launches opponents at a slightly lower angle (86° → 80°).
• Luigi has a different down tilt, a quick low kick rather than a sweep kick. It has less startup lag (frame 5 → 3) and much less ending lag (FAF 40 → 18) than Mario's down tilt.
• Luigi's down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 5-11 → 3-6).
• Luigi's down tilt has much less range due to its new animation.
• Luigi's down tilt deals much less damage (12% → 7%), greatly hindering its KO potential.
  • However when combined with its much faster speed, this improves its combo potential.
• Luigi's forward smash has less ending lag (FAF 54 → 42), significantly improving its safety.
• Luigi's forward smash deals less damage (18%/17%/16% → 16%/15%/14%), hindering its KO potential.
  • Luigi's slightly down angled forward tilt in particular deals significantly less damage (17% → 14%), significantly hindering its KO potential.
• Luigi's up smash has a larger hitbox (190u → 200u).

Aerial attacks

• Due to his higher short hop, Luigi can perform all of his aerials twice in a short hop except for forward aerial. He can also auto-cancel up aerial if he performs two of them in a short hop. However, this makes his down aerial less effective for combos and gimping when combined with his slower falling speed.
• Late neutral aerial has a heavy kick sound when it connects rather than a medium kick sound.

Throws/other attacks

• Luigi's grab has a different animation, which overall gives it slightly less range.
• Forward and back throw's damage outputs and base knockback are reversed.

Special moves

• Luigi's Super Jump Punch has a sweetspot in the first frame of the move, which deals 25% damage and extremely high knockback. It also has a slightly longer duration (frames 2-23 → 2-24).
  • However, it possesses a sourspot which deals 1% damage and no knockback at all, making it much less safe as a recovery move. Additionally, the move has reduced intangibility.
• Luigi Cyclone only possesses two hitboxes which deal 15% and 18%, respectively, and it is not a multi-hitting move. These hitboxes do not deal set knockback, granting the move KO potential. It also requires less button mashing to rise and has slightly more vertical distance, making it a better recovery option.
• Luigi Cyclone cannot meteor smash airborne opponents, hindering its edgeguarding ability.
• Luigi's Fireball is not affected by gravity, improving its zoning ability but hindering its approaching potential and altering its usage for gimping; additionally, the fireball is green instead of red.
• Luigi’s Fireball travels slightly less distance than Mario’s.

Differences between game versions

In his transition to NTSC-U, Luigi underwent many changes, both positive and negative, which makes him slightly less of a clone than Mario. However, he was ultimately nerfed due to his lower mobility and the higher SDI presence. Despite this, he ironically has better matchups in the NTSC-U version, due to the changes to SDI also nerfing several character's combo options. Altogether, he is a worse character than in the Japanese version, but fares better due to the different gameplay mechanics, though not by much.

Attributes

• Luigi is bigger (1.0x → 1.12x). This improves his range but makes him easier to hit.
• Luigi's head is skinnier (Y stretch: 200 → 160).
• Luigi's rolls travel farther due to his larger model size.
• Luigi's air speed is lower (26 → 22.5).

Throws

• Forward Throw does more damage (12% → 16%), making it much stronger despite its reduced base knockback (80 → 70).
• Back Throw does less damage (16% → 12%), hindering its KO potential despite its increased base knockback (70 → 80).

Special attacks

• Fireballs deal less knockback (22 (base), 50 (scaling) → 10/25) and have a shorter duration (frames 16-104 → 16-94).
• Fire Jump Punch's grounded sweetspot deals less knockback (100 (base), 78 (scaling) → 90/80), hindering its KO potential despite its altered angle (80° → 90°).
• Aerial Fire Jump Punch's sweetspot deals more damage (24% → 25%) and has more knockback scaling (78 → 80).
• Aerial Fire Jump Punch's sourspot deals less damage (2% → 1%).
• Super Jump Punch effectively covers more distance due to Luigi's larger size.
• Fire Jump Punch's sweetspot now has a ping sound rather than a heavy kick sound.

Moveset

For a gallery of Luigi's hitboxes, see here.

Luigi's aerial attacks.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Left Punch (左パンチ) Right Punch (右パンチ) Kick (キック)	2%	Two punches and a kick. This move is a natural combo. Taken directly from Mario's attack combo in Super Mario 64.
			2%
			4%
Forward tilt		Middle Kick (ミドルキック)	10%	Luigi kicks forwards. The move is similar to Mario's, except it is considerably weaker. Decent spacing move but it is not particularly fast or strong, not KOing until very high percent. Can be angled.
Up tilt		Uppercut (アッパーカット)	10%	Luigi does an uppercut. It is almost the same as Mario's except for a few minor hitbox differences, giving it many of the same uses as Mario's uppercut in that it is a good combo starter at mid percents, chains into itself, and can KO at high percentages.
Down tilt		Low Kick (ローキック)	7%	Luigi performs a quick low kick. Low knockback and range, although it is very fast. It can lead into a Super Jump Punch at certain percents and it is safe on shield.
Dash attack		Flurry Punches (ぽこぽこパンチ, Pow-Pow/Burbling Punch)	2% (hits 1-6), 12% (total)	Six hits, 2% per hit. Due to a developer oversight, there is no finishing hit, and coupled with some ending lag, this move is easily punished.
Forward smash	↗	Smash Punch (スマッシュパンチ)	16%	Luigi winds up his fist for a bit and then punches with an enlarged fist. It is the weakest forward smash in the game. Using it in a short step will cause Luigi to slide forward a short distance. Has less power than Mario's, but it also has less ending lag, making it slightly better overall.
	→		15%
	↘		14%
Up smash		Lead Headbutt (スマッシュヘッドバット, Smash Headbutt)	19%	Luigi lunges his head upwards in an arc. It is mostly the same as Mario's, except it has a slightly larger hitbox. Very powerful vertical finisher; tied with Mario, Donkey Kong, and Jigglypuff for strongest up smash in the game. Can KO Mario as low as 73% on Dream Land at ground level.
Down smash		Double Kick (ダブルキック)	17%	Luigi performs a double sided breakdance leg sweep. It has good power and decent speed/range. It is the same as Mario's version.
Neutral aerial		Luigi Kick (ルイージキック)	14% (clean), 11% (late)	Does a sex kick, which gets weaker over time.
Forward aerial		Forward Dropkick (前方ドロップキック)	16% (clean), 10% (late)	Luigi sticks his feet out in front, his body aimed forward with them, and spins. Has slow startup lag but it has a decently powerful hitbox when it first comes out.
Back aerial		Backward Dropkick (バックワードキック, Backward Kick)	16% (clean), 10% (late)	Luigi thrusts his feet back and flips. Similar to forward aerial except it has slightly lower startup and a shorter lasting hitbox. Good for edgeguarding, and has good power.
Up aerial		Air Slash (エアスラッシュ)	12% (clean), 9% (late)	Luigi performs a flip kick. It comes out on frame 2, making it the fastest aerial in the game in terms of startup lag (along with Mario's up aerial). Knockback direction depends on which angle the foe was hit on. Lower power than most of his moves, but an effective juggling and combo move.
Down aerial		Drill Kick (ドリルキック)	3% (hits 1-8), 24% (total)	Luigi performs a drill kick, 8 hits, 3% per hit for a total of 24%. A useful meteor smash; Similar to Jigglypuff's down aerial, it can be used multiple times to ensure that the foe is unable to recover. It has slow startup lag but minimal ending lag compared to other drill kills. Can combo into itself and up aerial/Super Jump Punch easily. It also has solid shield pressuring potential due to its low ending lag. Like other drills, it is heavily SDIable however.
Grab		Grab (つかみ)	—
Forward throw		Forward Spin Throw (前方スピンスロー)	16%, 12% (NTSC-J)	Same as Mario, swings foe once and tosses them in front with good power.
Back throw		Airplane Swing (ジャイアントスイング, Giant Swing)	12% (throw), 16% (NTSC-J throw), 10% (collateral)	Swings three times and tosses foe behind with excellent KO power, a throw from Super Mario 64.
Forward roll Back roll		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Leg sweeps and gets up, similar to his down smash.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Leg sweeps and gets up, similar to his down smash.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Gets up and somersaults.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			6%	Slowly gets up and kicks.
Neutral special		Fire Ball	6%	Throws a green fireball as a projectile. Unlike Mario's, it is not affected by gravity and travels forward perfectly straight, even in midair.
Up special		Super Jump Punch	25% (sweetspot), 24% (NTSC-J aerial sweetspot), 1% (sourspot), 2% (NTSC-J sourspot)	Does a jumping uppercut. Although it is visually similar to Mario's, it functions very differently. If Luigi is right next to the opponent and does it, it will become a Fire Jump Punch, a move with high damage and powerful knockback, able to KO Jigglypuff at rather low percentages. It can also be combo'd into from a down aerial, or a forward aerial hitting with the weak hitbox (on Luigi's feet). Otherwise, the sour spot deals almost no damage and knockback, leaving Luigi extremely vulnerable. Luigi has some devastating combos involving the Fire Jump Punch. Like Mario's, it is a good recovery move.
Down special		Luigi Cyclone	15% (loop), 18% (final hit upon landing)	A spinning attack that resembles the Spin Jump from Super Mario World. Unlike Mario's, it has only two hits: one at the beginning, and one at the end (only when he lands; the attack will remain having one hitbox while he's in the air). Once he lands, his hitboxes will become inactive except for the second hit, making him very punishable. If two hits connect, it will deal a total of 26-33% damage. If the B button is pressed repeatedly in midair, Luigi will rise upwards. It has vertical KO power at percentages under 100% when used close to the upper blast line, and can be used as a followup to an up aerial.
Taunt			1%	Performs a bashful kick with his left foot while looking down to the ground. The only damaging taunt in the game, it deals weak damage with low set knockback. Although it is possible to perform an infinite combo against lightweights with two Luigis using the taunt, it has otherwise almost nonexistent utility due to its poor range, startup and power.

Announcer call

• English/Japanese/Chinese

• French

• German

On-screen appearance

• Jumps out of a Warp Pipe (with a stern expression on his face) just like Mario.

Taunt

• Puts his arms by his sides and slightly behind him, lowers his head and kicks with his left foot. If the foot connects with an opponent, it deals 1% damage with set knockback and stun. This is the only damaging taunt in the game. It is possible for a team of two Luigis to perform an infinite combo on lighter characters such as Jigglypuff using nothing but their taunts.

Crowd cheer

	Cheer (International)	Cheer (Japanese)
Cheer
Description	Lui - gi! *claps 3 times*	Lui - gi! *claps 3 times*

Victory poses

A cover of the iconic "Level Completed" music from Super Mario Bros.

• Shuffles left and right.
• Childishly swings at the air and, after sighing twice, glares at the camera (also his character selection animation).
• While facing backwards, he waves to the left and right side.

In competitive play

Most historically significant players

See also: Category:Luigi players (SSB)

•  Cafe - Japan's best Luigi and one of the best in the world. Some of his highest placements such as 9th at Kanto 2015 and Kanto 2016 are some of the only serious Luigi results seen in the country since Igai's results during a few Chuo University events.
•  Czar - One of the best Mario players in the world who has a strong Luigi secondary. Placed 5th at Super Smash Con 2015 and 7th at COA VI using the Mario brothers. He was formerly ranked 65th on the 2021-2022 Smash 64 Power Rankings with both characters.
•  Freean - A Luigi and Captain Falcon co-main who is the best Luigi player in the world. Despite his co-main status, he has shown proficiency in playing Luigi at high level, placing 3rd at Operation Desert Smash 3, 9th at GENESIS 6, and 17th at Snosa III, being some of the best solo Luigi results seen at North American tournaments. He was formerly 35th on the 2021-2022 Smash 64 Power Rankings as the best Luigi player on the list.
•  Igai - The best Luigi player in Japan in the early meta. He showed one of the first Luigi results for Smash 64 with a 3rd and 5th at Chuo University 2012 and Chuo University 2013, respectively. He also made rare appearances during the modern era of the game, placing 25th at Kanto 2018.

Tier placement and history

Although Luigi has a decent amount of powerful KO moves and a projectile to use for interrupting approaches, he has failed to make a significant impact throughout the entire metagame, primarily due to his poor approach, bad disadvantage state, and unimpressive range. It has not helped that he is outclassed in most aspects by his brother Mario, another factor related to Luigi's unpopularity. In the very early metagame, Luigi results always seemed sparse despite notable attempts with players such as Igai and Hoto in Japan. In North America, Luigi results were almost nonexistent and as such, culminated to scarce representation and low placements at notable tournaments. This has caused Luigi to hover around the bottom three throughout all established tier lists for Smash 64; being ranked 10th on the first two tier lists, 11th on the third one, and 12th on the fourth and current tier list. Years after the most recent tier list dropped, his best representative in Freean managed to bring some spotlight to the character, with solo and co-main results in singles and appearing on most power rankings since 2018. Despite this, his metagame has remained the same as it was in the beginning of competitive play and in the same timeframe, other low-tiers have accomplished more significant feats, with characters such as Link and Samus developing a wider playerbase at top level due to their advancements in their movesets such as their technical play and better navigation around platforms. Luigi has always been considered a low-tier character and his metagame has seemed to lack much innovation in comparison, causing any chances to appear frequently in competitive play very unlikely.

In doubles tournaments, Luigi has seen more success as a character. This is due to some of his pre-existing strengths such as his decent combo game working well with other combo-centric characters such as Pikachu and Mario, as well as his combo finishers such as Super Jump Punch and Luigi Tornado helping in closing stocks very effectively. Additionally, a higher tier character such as Pikachu can be matched with other teammate using Luigi, which can help mitigate some of Luigi's problems in disadvantage. Some players such as Shears and Razz have gone as far as regulating Luigi as their doubles main instead of their traditional character used in singles. This representation of Luigi in doubles can be seen with top 8s of tournaments such as The Empire Smashes Back and even tournament wins with Rewind II and Snosa IV, who had one or both players using Luigi in the winning team.

In 1P Game

In the game's single-player mode, a player and a randomly chosen ally fight against Mario and Luigi in a team battle on Peach's Castle making him the only unlockable character who can be fought in the 1P game.

Description

Though often hidden in his older brother Mario's shadow, Luigi is, in reality, very popular. Taller than Mario, Luigi also jumps higher. Although he didn't appear in Super Mario 64, in Mario Kart 64 he performed to the best of his ability. For one who seems to always be in the background, he has many fans who eagerly await his appearance.

Works (International)	Works (Japanese)
Mario Bros. (NES)	マリオブラザーズ (83.9/FC)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)	スーパーマリオブラザーズ2 (86.6/FCD)
Mario Kart 64 (N64)	スーパーマリオUSA (92.9/FC)

Alternate costumes

Trivia

• Luigi is the only unlockable character to appear in-game before he is actually unlocked, such as in the How to Play demo and the 1P Game.
  • He is also the only character who isn't unlocked via beating the 1P Game.
• Luigi's ending picture is the only one to depict another fighter; in this case, Mario.
• Luigi is the only character with a taunt attack.
• When Luigi is hit or uses his Fire Ball, his face texture uses Mario's sideburns.